The present invention relates to an apparatus for crushing scrap vehicle wheels to prepare the scrap wheels for recycling, and for cutting tires to prepare the tires for recycling.
The emphasis in today's society on recycling materials continues to increase. Wheels from vehicles that have been damaged in accidents or otherwise made inoperative represent a large amount of both metal and rubber that can be recycled. Recycling these scrap vehicle wheels can be a source of considerable profit.
Additionally, scrap vehicle wheels take up a large amount of space in salvage yards, space which could be profitably used for receiving and storing other scrap.
Furthermore, a salvage yard owner can take advantage of periodic cyclical dips in the amount of available scrap processing work by making it possible for his employees efficiently to crush vehicle wheels and cut vehicle tires for recycling.
Generally, uncrushed scrap vehicle wheels are too bulky to ship to a recycler. Consequently, recyclers generally will not accept uncrushed scrap vehicle wheels. Furthermore, the rubber tires attached to scrap vehicle wheels must often be sent to a different recycler from the wheels, and the rubber recyclers frequently will not accept whole tires.
There is therefore a need for an apparatus which efficiently crushes scrap vehicle wheels and cuts the tires into segments for recycling.
Earlier wheel crushing devices had a number of problems which this invention solves.
First, some earlier devices did not securely hold the vehicle wheel during the crushing process, so that the wheel could actually fly out of the device under the crushing force, with great danger to personnel. This defect was most often associated with a crushing device which exerted a linear crushing force against the wheel, rather than crushing the wheel radially.
Radial crushers were subject to a different problem. Most of these devices used a number of independently operated hydraulic crushing arms arranged concentrically around the wheel. As the crushing process continued, each crushing arm would experience a different resistance to the crushing force, with the result that the hydraulic fluid in each of the independent hydraulic cylinders developed a different pressure. Because of this, the engine and hydraulic cylinders had to be overconfigured. For example, the specifications for the Multitek WC-500 Wheel Crusher (Multitek, Inc., P.O. Box 248, Prentice, Wis. 54556) indicate a 35 h.p. engine and a 15 gallon hydraulic pump.
Another disadvantage of earlier radial crushers is that the independently operated hydraulic crushing arms required separate, duplicated components, increasing the cost of the device and leading to additional points of failure. If any one of the radial crushing arms became inoperative, the entire device was then inoperative.
Another disadvantage of earlier wheel crushers was that the crushing head, that is, the component which holds the wheel for crushing, was mounted parallel to the ground at such a height that the operator had to bend over to mount a heavy wheel for crushing. Over the course of crushing many wheels, this produces a great deal of fatigue and leads to the possibility of back injuries.
Still another disadvantage of earlier crushing devices was that a separate device was required to cut tires.
Applicant's novel wheel crusher and tire cutter solves the above problems.